“That Had Earned Him the Right to Vote Anywhere:” Black Soldiers Vote in the 1864 Presidential Election

Historically speaking, some elections are more important than others. However, it is difficult to dispute the significance of the presidential election of 1864. Much was on the line. Many Confederate hopes rested on a McClellan victory, while the majority of Federal soldiers saw Lincoln’s reelection as the surest route to continued prosecution of the war and ultimate victory.

Some states allowed their citizens soldiers to vote while in the field, others did not. Some states made allowances for a portion of their soldiers to come home on furlough and vote, while others did not. One state that did allow its fighting men to vote in the field was Ohio.

Ohio was also one of the few states that allowed some men of African descent to vote. Despite the state’s 1802 constitution that limited voting to White men, political shifts, court case precedent, and changes in some citizens’ sentiments during the mid-nineteenth century, led to limited franchise opportunities for African American men. Those males who met the voting age requirement and were determined to be more White than Black, often participated at the polls. It appears that decisions on who was “more White than Black” came from local election officials. Those townships who saw the value of accepting votes from men of African descent allowed it, while others did not.

Recruited from all sections of Ohio, the 5^th United States Colored Infantry mustered into United States Service as the Buckeye State’s first Black regiment in 1863. Made up primarily of free men of color, who were born free, self-emancipated, or received manumissions from former enslavers and then migrated to Ohio, these recruits initially trained at Camp Delaware, north of state capital city of Columbus. Although the 5^th USCI skirmished some while participating in raids in northeastern North Carolina in late 1863, and on the James/York River peninsula in the early spring of 1864, their first true taste of combat came on June 15, 1864 at Petersburg. During the opening actions of the Petersburg Campaign, as part of Gen. Edward Hinks’ Division of the Eighteenth Corps, the 5^th USCI performed well at Baylor’s Farm that morning and along the original Dimmock Line of Confederate defenses later that evening, capturing several fortified positions. In doing so, the regiment sustained only limited casualties and gained valuable experience under fire.

As the 5^th USCI transitioned to trench warfare at Petersburg in late June, July, and August 1864, their experience proved trying to the enlisted men and deadly to the officers. Two officers fell to sniper shots, some men received wounds from artillery shells, and of course, sickness was ever-present. In addition, while the Confederates tended to relax their firing at White Federal units across no-man’s-land, they often harassed Black regiments unsparingly. Reassigned to Deep Bottom landing on the James River at the end of August, the 5^th USCI worked on strengthening the defenses there and picketing the area against nearby Confederates.

At the Battle of New Market Heights, on September 29, 1864, the 5^th USCI served in a brigade with the 36^th and 38^th USCI regiments. Commanded by Col. Alonzo Draper, the brigade fought in Brig. Gen. Charles Jackson Paine’s Third Division of the Eighteenth Corps, Army of the James. That morning, Draper’s Brigade received orders to follow the primary assault of Col. Stephen Duncan’s Brigade (4^th and 6^th USCI) directed at the Confederate defenses south of the New Market Road, which led to Richmond. After witnessing Duncan’s Brigade lose over half of its strength in the initial assault, Draper’s Brigade formed in column of regiments with the 5^th USCI leading it and attacked over the same ground. They, too, took heavy casualties, but through strong noncommissioned officer leadership after many of the regimental White officers had suffered wounds, Draper’s Brigade rallied and broke though the famous Texas Brigade’s earthworks, driving off the defenders.

According to historian Versalle Washington, “Leading the charge of the 5^th USCT into the rebel works fell to Lieutenant Joseph Scroggs’s Company H. After Lieutenant Colonel Shurtleff fell wounded, Lieutenant Scoggs’s men surged ahead. As they neared the works, Scoggs lost Color Sergeant George Steele, the regimental color bearer, and his orderly sergeant, William Strawder, was wounded in the neck. Orderly Sergeant Strawder, blood streaming from his wound refused to go to the rear for aid and soon joined his commander in the Confederate position.”  Unfortunately, later in the day, when the Confederates fell back to Fort Gilmer, the 5^th USCI again answered the call and attacked that fortified position losing additional casualties.

Among the 14 Black men who received the Medal of Honor for their heroism that day, four were from the 5^th USCI: 1^st Sgt. Powhatan Beaty, Co. G; 1^st Sgt. James Bronson, Co. D; Sgt. Maj. Milton Holland, Co. C; and 1^st Sgt. Robert Pinn, Co. I.

After New Market Heights and Fort Gilmer, the 5^th USCI participated in the October 27, 1864, Federal offensive in conjunction with the Tenth Corps near Darbytown Road. Limited action that day resulted in about seven casualties for the regiment’s soldiers and officers. The 1^st and 22^nd USCI suffered significantly more.

As the presidential election neared, few other things were on the soldiers’ minds. However, as African American correspondent for the Philadelphia Press, Thomas Morris Chester, reported, “The election, so far as I saw and was able to learn, passed off in a very orderly manner.”

Apparently some controversy did develop about some of the Black soldiers of the 5^th USCI voting. Correspondent Chester reported: “The voting of the 5^th United States Colored Troops, who came from Ohio, was a little amusing, and attracted much attention from the McClellan men on the other side of the line. The supporters of Little Mac were gathered together in quite a crowd opposite the place of election of the 5^th [USCI]; and it is more than probable they would have come over and given expression to their choice had it not been for the extensive line of armed men to prevent their indulging, in any such luxury. The colored men in front of the 5^th were particularly vigilant lest those who had been so intently watching them from early morn should claim their ‘constitutional privilege’ and avail themselves of the opportunity to express their admiration for McClellan.”

It is likely that three of the Medal of Honor recipients from the 5^th USCI voted in the election. 1^st Sgt. Powhatan Beaty, 1^st Sgt. James Bronson, and 1^st Sgt. Robert Pinn were all above the legal voting age of 21 and of were of mixed race ancestry. Sgt. Maj. Milton Holland, also mixed race, missed the eligible voting age by a year, although he may have voted, too.

Age or complexion may not have mattered to some of the soldiers. According to a story in the December 7, 1864, edition of Oberlin, Ohio’s Lorain County News, at least one soldier voter in the 5^th USCI was questioned as to his eligibility, probably due to his dark complexion. The soldier, an unnamed orderly sergeant, “pointed to an ugly scar on his throat, saying that ‘that had earned him the right to vote anywhere.’” Historian Versalle Washington credits the quote to 1^st Sgt. William Strawder, who received a neck wound at New Market Heights. If so, Stawder’s enlistment records indicate that he was too young and probably not of mixed race ancestry to have legally voted. Strawder, a barber, who was born in Lancaster, Ohio, was only 18 years old when he enlisted on June 29, 1863, and his complexion at his enlistment was noted as Black. If it was Sgt. Strawder, perhaps he felt that his service to a nation that did not yet technically consider him a citizen, and his near death experience on the battlefield, outweighed such qualification details. Regardless, correspondent Chester reported that the 5^th USCI cast 194 votes for Lincoln, and 0 for McClellan.

The right to vote without the hair-splitting distinctions of racial ancestry is one of the things that the men of the 5^th USCI were fighting for. Holding the right of suffrage, a key element of citizenship, was a step closer toward social and political equality, and realizing the claims of the Declaration of Independence and guarantees of the Constitution. It would be four more years until before the states ratified an amendment to the Constitution that provided citizenship to all African Americans, and six more years before the Fifteenth Amendment gave the elective franchise to Black men. However, the soldiers of the 5^th USCI, and all United States Colored Troops, could claim proudly that their participation in the Civil War helped bring about these positive changes that moved the United States in the direction toward a more perfect Union.

Sources:

Blackett, R. J. M. ed. Thomas Morris Chester: Black Civil War Correspondent, His Dispatches from the Virginia Front. Louisiana State University Press, 1989.

Complied Military Service Record for 1^st Sgt. Powhatan Beaty, Co. G, 5^th USCI, accessed via Fold3.com

Complied Military Service Record for 1^st Sgt. James Bronson, Co. D, 5^th USCI, accessed via Fold3.com

Complied Military Service Record for Sgt. Maj. Milton Holland, Co. C, 5^th USCI, accessed via Fold3.com

Complied Military Service Record for 1^st Sgt. Robert Pinn, Co. I, 5^th USCI, accessed via Fold3.com

Complied Military Service Record for 1^st Sgt. William Strawder, Co. H, 5^th USCI, accessed via Fold3.com

Finkelman, Paul. “The Strange Career of Race Discrimination in Antebellum Ohio,” in Case Western Reserve Law Review, Volume 55, Issue 2, 2004.

Lorain County News (Oberlin, Ohio), December 7, 1864.

Washington, Versalle F. Eagles on Their Buttons: A Black Infantry Regiment in the Civil War. University of Missouri Press, 1999.

Tim Talbott is the Chief Administrative Officer for the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust. He is the former Director of Education, Interpretation, Visitor Services, and Collections at Pamplin Historical Park and the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier in Petersburg, Virginia. Tim is also the founding member and President of the Battle of New Market Heights Memorial and Education Association. He maintains the “Random Thoughts on History” blog and has published articles in both book and scholarly journal format. Tim’s current project is researching soldiers captured during the Petersburg Campaign.

The mission of the Battle of New Market Heights Memorial and Education Association is to commemorate and educate. We seek to erect a monument at the site of the Battle of New Market Heights honoring the United States Colored Troops who served in the Third Division of the XVIII Corps (Army of the James). Among these men were fourteen African American soldiers and two white officers who received the Medal of Honor for acts of heroism on September 29, 1864. We also seek to educate the public about this significant military victory by the United States Colored Troops. More information is available at https://battleofnewmarketheights.org. As part of a collaboration between ECW and BNMHMEA, this piece is cross-posted at their website.